The Sun. — London, England, 1864-12-24 00:00:00

Naval and Military Intelligence. The Field-Marshal Commanding-in-Chief, as Pre. sident, ea:44Tel°, of the Council of Education, and Governor of the Royal Military Academy at Wool wich, yesterday attended and closed the half-yearly course of studies of the gentlemen' cadets at that es tablishment. His Royal Highness was assisted by by the Vice President, Major General Frederick tiVilliam Hamilton, C.B.—Major General Sir Fre derick Abbott, C.B.—the Rev. Canon Mosely,F.R.S. —and Col. Thomas Elwyn, R.A., members of the Council, who were present. The Field Marshal, on his arrival at half-past 10 a.m., alighted on the area fronting, the principal entrance to the Academy ground, where he was officially received by the Corn.. mandant and Staff of the garrison, the Lieut. Go. vernor and commanding officers of the Academy, a number of General officers from the Horse Guards, and others assembled in full-dress uniforms.TheD aka v;oro the uniform of Colonel of the Royal Engineers. Soon after his arrival he was joined by his Royal Highness Prince Arthur, who had ridden down from the Ranger's house, in Green wichapark, accompanied by Major Elphinstone, R A., his governor. The following officers formed a portion of the staff from the Horse Guards :—Gen. John Burgoyne, G,C.8., Director of Works—Gen. Sir George Pollock, C.C.B. and K.S.l.—Lieut.-Gen. Sir Harry Jones, G.C,8., Royal Engineers, Governor of the Royal Military College at Sandhurst—and Lient.aGen. the lion. Sir James Y. Scarlett, K.C.8., Adjt.-Gen. to the Forces. The following officers also formed part of the escort :—Major Gen. Warde, C. 8., R.A., Major. Gen. Sandham, RE., Col. Gambier, Deputy Adjt..Gen. R.A.—Brigade Major Hay, Capt. Nau gle, Deputy Assist.-Quartermaster-.Gen.—Capt. Williams, Aide-de-Camp—Col.Payne, Commandant Royal Marines—Col. Hawkins, Commanding Royal Engineers—Col. Kennedy, C. 8., Commandant Mill. tary Train—Lieut.-Col. Gibbon, C. 8., 4th division depot brigade Royal Artillery—Lieut.•Col. Field, governor of the general hospital—Major Shervin ton, Brigade Major Military Train—Dr Litle and the Medical Staff of the Academy—Col. F. A. Yorke, R.E., Inspector of Studies and second Com mandant—Capt. Bruce, R.A., Assist.-Inspector of Studies—B revet. Maj or Thrin g,R.A.—Capt. Stokes, R.A., and Second Capt. Arbuckle, Captains of Com panies of Gentlemen Cadets, together with the pro. fessors and masters forming the civil branch of the Academy. The whole of the field batteries of the Royal Artillery having been drawn o'it in coma mand of Colonel Anderson, C. 8., 4th Brigade, R.A., marched past on the Duke's arrival, and underwent an inspection. Afterwards his Royal Highness proceeded to the Academy parade, where the gentlemen cadets were mustered under arms, and were put through a course of manual and platoon exercises by the senior cadets Nicholson, Washington, and Curling - ; and in which they acquitted themselves in a most creditable manner. After examining the landscape and other drawings executed during the past half, his Royal Highness proceeded to one of the class rooms and made a viva voce examination in the French and German lan. guages, and privately gave an admonitory address, in which he referred with much regret to certain pro ceedings which had recently been transacted, and which he hoped would would never be repeated. The company then adjourned to the School of Arms, and formed in double file to the number of 178, in front of the table on which were placed the prizes. The general visitors were here admitted by tickets only. Me Duke and Prince, accompanied by the officers above named, took up their position at the back of the table, and Col. Yorke, addressing the Duke, read the aunt xed report _ Royal INElitary Academy. havo the honour to report to yourßoyal High 11C138 that the gentleman cadets of the Ist class who have been found qualified for c'immissions at the recent examina tion by the Council of Military Education are also qualified in regard to conduct and drill. In every class throughout the Academy the emulation in study has been very appa. rent, and the monthly returns on that head have been highly satisfactory. The zeal and attention of the professors and instructors and masters have been unremitting in every branch of art. Every rank of (Meer connected with the discipline and military exercises has received material assistance from the responsible and sub-division under officers and from the greater number of corporals in carrying out the du ies and in hiaintaining discipline, which has been carried out with liminess and consideration. The bearing of the officers t ,warts the cadets and of the cadets among themselves has t,ccri very satisfactory. The drills, gymnastics, and riding have been carried out as fully as time permitted, and the senior class have had the advantage of four days' practice with the heavier guns at Shoeburyness. I have the honour to be, &3., 11. S.A.SMIAINI, Major-General, Lieutenant-Governor. After reading the report, the Duke proceeded to address the company, and said that it pleased him to receive so gratifying an account of the professors and masters, and that it gave him great satisfaction to find that, in pursuance of their studies and the general duties of the Academy, the gentlemen cadets had conducted themselves well. He congra tulated them on that score heartily, but told them that they must bear in mind that there were other duties to be carried oat in order to attain that posi tion for which they were designed. He should not enlarge en that topic again, as he had already dis cussed the subject in anether part of the establish relent. They ought never to overlook the fact that to be able to command they should learn to obey. This was one of their duties, the importance of which he wished most to inculcate. Without it they could never be qualified to figure well in the roll of the valuable corps to which they might be appointed. Hie royal highness concluded by wishing them an agreeable Christmas. One of the classes then pro ceeded to the gymnasium, and went through a most interesting course of exercises. The following were the prizes awarded :—Mr Curling, a regulation sword for exemplary conduct ; Mr Nicholson, five prizes, viz., for exemplary conduct the Pollock gold medal ; for Ist artillery, a double telescope ; Ist for tification, and " aide memoirs ;" Ist topography, an aneroid barometer, and for chymistry, a microscope; Mr Broun, for 2d artillery, a small aneroid baromee ter, and for geology a microscope; Mr Lindoc, 2d fortification, a prismatic compass; Mr Beresford, for 2d topography, a pocket sextant, Mr Pulford, for natural philosophy and practical mathematics, a microscope; Mr Walker, for Ist French and 2d German; Air Moore, for 2d French; Mr Arnott, for Ist German, an atlas ; Mr Jacob, for Hindustani, a gazeteer of India; Mr Purcell, for Ist mathemae lice, a case of instruments ; Mr Watson, fur 2d ma thematics, ;c1 fortification, and let practical geome try, a prismatic compass, a pocket compass with scale and pen in case, end a pocket sextant ; to Mr Jekyl, for Ist landscape drawing, the " English :_chool of Painting in Water Colours ;" and to Mr Leech, for 2d landscape drawing, a box of colours, with bruahes, See. After leaving the Academy the Duke attended the riding-school of the garrison, where a class of the cadets went through a course of bar riding. His royal highness left Woolwich at about three o'clock for London, under a royal salute from the guns of the Royal Artillery at the Greenhill Battery. Before taking his departure he said he must not refrain from complimenting some of the cadets—namely, Mr Beaver, who is still an inmate of the hospital from a severe wound in the face ; al, Biscoe, Mr Curling, and Mr Reid for their courageous and humane conduct at the scene of the late railway accident at Blackheath, when, although injured and suffering themselves, they tendered all the assistance in their power to their fellow passengers. Tha War Dopartment screw steamvessel Balac lava, from W o olvvich, arrived on Thursday at De voriport with stores for the gun-wh4ry, The ironcased screw steamship Caledonia, 35, fitting for th e fi rs t division of the Steam R eserve, was removed o n ti ettnestilly from I")..vonpo r t d ock yard to Koyharn. The screw steam frigate Liverpool, 39, Capt. Rowley .Llwhert, is now in No. 1 dock at the De vonport yard. She was commissioned in April last year, and was obliged to return from her station in eonsflitencs of leakage and the loss of a portion of lin. false keel. Oa arrival at Plymouth it was ru ?allure.' that the defects were so great that her officers expected she would be put of commission. She has lost a portion of her false keel extending from the stem to two.thirds of its entire length. Since she has been in dock several patches of copper have been stripped from her bottom, but no serious in juries have been discovered. Her decks are, how. ever, out of repair. The Liverpool was built with great despatch—in nine months, it is saie—and the planking used may not have been sufficiently sea soned. After she was put in commiisicn she pro. ceeded at once to the West Indies, 'where at first she remained in port exposed for some time to the sun, which opened her deck beams, especially underneath. She then went to sea, and having encountered heavy weather, which strained her, a serious leakage ensued. Gangs of caulkers are now busily occupied in repairing her decks, and when her new false keel is ready the shipwrights will set her up with shores ; the dock-blocks will then be removed, and she will be restored to a seaworthy condition. The Cadmus, 21, 400. horse power, Cspt. A. C. Gordon, fitting at Chatham harbour for the North American and West India station, has had no day named to take her departure, and it seems pro bable that she will be delayed some time in conse quence of the slow rate at which the crew is being 'completed. Her compliment is fixed at 270 men, but up to the present time only 60 hands have joined, and these were sent on board a day or two since from the naval barracks to proceed, with the Royal Marines, with the ordinary work of fitting out the ship. Very little now remains to be executed on board by the shipwright department, and the vessel is so far advanced that had she the proper number of men she could proceed to sea next week. By the Saxon, which arrived yesterday at Plymouth, we learn that the military commander at the Cape of Good Hope was at Graham's Town. The transports:Roselyn Castle and Mary Shepheard had arrived in Simon's Bay, with the let battalion of the 10th Regiment. The relief, 858, commanded by Col. Annesly and Major Henslow, were under canvass on the parade at Cape Town. Her Majesty ship Valorous was in Table Bay, but was expected to leave on Nov. 22 with the 2d bat talion for Simon's Bay, where the troops will join the transports and proceed to Calcutta. Her Ma jesty's ship Orontes, from Plymouth, arrived in Table Bay on Nov. 7, and left for Simon's Bay on the Bth; she sailed on the 13th for Ceylon. The French gunboat Preg left Simon's Bay on Nov. 7 for Bourbon. The Prussian steamer Don Juan, 12, from the Mozambique, arrived in Simon's Bay on Nov. 13. Commodore Wilmot, in the Rattlesnake, had made a long visit to St. Helena. The Jaseur, 5, arrived at the island on Nov. 19, and left on the 23d for Ascension. The Diamond Company's steamer Kaffraria, from England, arrived on the 13th. The storeship Meander, 10, Capt. T. G. Bickford, the iron Screw steam troopship Dromedary, Master-Coro. Alexander Brown, and the screw steam gun.vessel Jaseur, 5, Commander Walter J. H. Grubbe, were at Ascension on the 31 of December; the screw steam gun-vessel Espoir, 5, was at Madeira on the 16th of December. The following appointments were made yesterday at the Admiralty :—Lieut. R. B. Lambert to the Royal Adelaide—Lieut. Frederick B. Boardman and Lieut. Lawrence Ching to the Excellent, for study —Henry D. King, assist.•clerk, for the Secretary's office—Thomas F. Harrison and George Taylor, assist.-clerks, additional, to the Princess Royal. The following appointment has been made in the Royal Naval Reserve :—John Irwin Browne, to be Lieut. WILLS AND BEQUESTS. (From the illustrated London News.) The will of Robert George Cecil Pane, Esq., a Commissioner of the Court of Bankruptcy, of 4, Upper Brock-street, was proved by his relict, Har riette Anne Fane, only daughter of Admiral Sir Henry Blackwood, Bart., the sole executrix nomi nated in the will, to whom he has bequeathed the whole of his property absolutely. The personalty was sworn under £40,000. The will is dated Aug. 6, 1861, and is executed on a printed form. The learned commissioner died on the 4th of October at the age of 68. The will of John Leech, Esq., artist, was proved by his relict Anne Leech, the sole executrix, and the personalty sworn under «6,000. Ile has left the whole of his property, real acid personal, to his wife, for her use absolutely. The will bears date March 10, 1854. The will of Hudson Gurney, Eici , of Keswick, Norfolk, and St. James's, Westeninister, was proved in London under £1,100,000 personalty in England. The executors are John Henry Gurney, Daniel Gurney, of North Runcton, near Lynn; and Francis Hay Gurney, of Tnorpe, Norwich. The attesting witnesses are Fredk. Jansen, solicitor, Basinghall street, and George George, land agent, Cringleford The will is dated 26th June, 1860, and there are six codicils, the last dated the 26th October, 1864, and the testator died on the 9th November. There are many legacies. The principal legatee is John Henry Gurney (the testator's second cousin, and sore.in-law of testator's late brother, Joseph Henry Gurney). To him he has devised the mansion and freehold of Kes wick, all other his real estates, and has left to him the plate, library, manuscripts, and family reminis cences as heirlooms, bequeathing £5,000 for the erection of a room suitable to contain the collection ; and further bequeaths in trust for him, the sum of £160,000 to be invested and settled in the same man ner with the inheritance of the freeholds, appointing him also residuary legatee of the personal estate. And the testator further directs that the sum of £120,000 shall also be invested in the purchase of real property, to be held in trust for the sons (ac cording to seniority) of the late John Gurney of Earlham (who was the son of testator's late cousin, Samuel Gurney, of Upton-street). To his said cousin and executor, Daniel Gurney, he leaves £120,000 ; to his said executor, Francis Hay Gurney (eldest son of the said Daniel Gurney), £20,000. Amongst the legatees is W. H. Covington, of Barclay and Bevan's Bank, 100 guineas, and a like sum to gene tlemen in Gurney's Norwich Bank ; and legacies to others in the brewery of which the testator was principal partner. Annuities and legacies to his domestics, and £lO for each year they have been in his service. The charitable bequests are :—'ro the Old People's Hospital, St Helen's, Norwich, £l,OOO. Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, £1,000; Quakers' Monthly Meeting in Norwich (to which his family had belonged), £1,000; Norwich Public Literary Institution, £lOO. He also leaves £2,000 to be placed at the entire discretion of his executors in providing for such minor allowances as he had been in the habit of making; and as they fall in the prin cipal to be given to charities in and about Norwich and elsewhere where he had property. All charie table bequests, legacies, and annuities not exceeding £20,000 are to be paid free of legacy duty. The will of the Hon. Hannah Meyer Fitzßoy, of Upper Grosvenor-street, the widow of the Right Hon. Henry Fitzßoy, and daughter of the late Baron Nathan Meyer Rothschild, has been proved in the Principal Court of Probate. It was made on the 21st of November last ; and after making various bequests to Lady Southampton and other relatives and friends, the will directs £4OO to be applied by the executors, through the National Lifeboat Society, in the purchase of a lifeboat, to be called the Arthur Frederick, after her late son ; also £4OO to be given to the poor of the parishes of G St eo G rg eo e rf n. e, Hanover-square; St Ma r yl e b one , St the-East, and St Margaret, Westminster. There are also legacies and other bequests to all her ser vants ; and the residue is bequeathed to her only daughter, Caroline Blanche Eiizabeth, the wife of Sir Coutts Lindsay, Bart., who inherits the whole of the large fortune of the deceased, The executors aro Sir Coutts Lindsay and Mr Edmund Barlow, by whom the will was preyed. The will of Charles Lewis, E.,q., of the Mansioo, Albany, has been proved in London by Licuts. Frederick Lewis and Alfred Lewis, and Mr Tyrrell Lewis, solicitor, three of the executors. The will bears date October 5, 1862, and after making ten specifi e lega c i es o f £ lOO for the immediate use of h fol:Whiisduawidaenst and d nine two children, young and est specific provisions gives a f art h er legacy of £2,000 to each sons thoef testator a fi t o v r e sons, Lieuts. Frederick, Alfred, Ernest, and Somers, and Mr Tyrrell Lewis ; his freeholds to his widow and daughter for life ; and empowers his executors to sell his pictures and personalty, and gives the residue of his estate to his said five sons. The per sonalty was sworn under i 23,000, ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE. HOME CIRCUIT.—LEwEs, Dec. 23. CRONVN COURT. (Before Mr Baron Channell.) The business of the Assizes here was concluded to-day. In the case of manslaughter arising out of a blow struck in a casual encounter, the medical evidence leaving it doubtful whether the blow was the cause of death, the grand jury threw out the bill. Two young women, servants, were convicted of stealing a pair of boots, and one George Henry Hutchins with re ceiving the same, well knowing them to have been stolen. Mr A. L. Smith prosecuted. They were sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment. It has already been mentioned that most of the cases in the calendar were cases either of burglary or forgery. None of the cases of burglary, however, were bad cases, or attended with any circumstances of violence or nocturnal terror to the inmates. The cases of forgery came from Brighton. In the course of the day the learned Judge took occasion to observe that in cases of forgery it was very desirable that the written instruments should be annexed to the deposi tions, or at all events copies or facsimiles of them, for other wise it was often difficult to understand the cases. He had found great difficulty in charging the grand jury in some of the cases of forgery in the calendar in consequence of the omission to annex the documents. A youth named Cooper was convicted on his own con. fession of forging several orders for the payment of small sums of money. Mr Hurst was for the prosecution; Mr Roupell and Mr Besley appeared for the prisoner. The prisoner had been a clerk in the service of the Lon don and Brighten Railway Company, who have a sick fund for their servants formed out of their contributions, and on which they have a right to draw in case of sickness or acci■ dent. The prisoner, who had previously borne a good cha racter, had forged several orders purporting to be signed i by persons thus entitled to draw upon the fund. The learned Judge sentenced him to 18 months' imprison ment with hard labour. A man named Fuggle. described as a carpenter, was in• dieted for forgery and uttering a cheque for £2O, with intent to defraud. Mr Merrifield conducted the case for the prosecution—the prisoner was not defended by counsel. The case was rather peculiar. The prosecutor, one Se lines, was in business at Hastings some years ago, and in the year 1857 had an account at the Hastings branch of the London and County Bank, and the prisoner was in his sorb vice. Since then the prosecutor had left Hastings. On the sth of November last the prisoner presented to a clothier at Brighton a cheque on the bank for £2O, dated 26th October, 1864, and purporting to be signed by Selines. At the back of the cheque was the indorsement, " Paid 16th October, 1857," and the date and signature bore traces of erasure and rewriting. The prisoner gave a false address, and when the cheque was stopped at the bank he denied having presented it. It was found to be an old cheque of the year 1864,which had been cashed and cancelled, and it was supposed that having been mislaid or left about, the prisoner had found it and altered the date, and had erased the erasure on the sig nature, and had then re-written it over the erasure. The prisoner himself stated that he had picked up the cheque," but he denied having altered it. Mr Selines proved that 1857 he had an account at the Hastings branch of the bank, and he received his cancelled cheques as is usual, and sometimes left them about. The signature to this cheque, he said, had been his, but it had been altered, apparently by erasure and then rewriting it, and as it stood it was not, he said, his signature—and the date also had been altered. He had mislaid the counterpart books, and he could not say when the cheque was drawn. The learned Judge—Do you put a number on the cheques and counterpart ? Witness said he did not. The learned Judge—Then let me advise you to do so. It is a very good precaution. The manager of the Hastings branch of the bank in 1857 was called as a witness, but had left his books behind, and so could not positively say, except upon reference to a memorandum made therefrom the other day, that he had paid the check. The learned Judge observed that he was sorry bankers' clerks should so often forget to bring their books. The books of the Bank of England were considered so far public that copies of entries were admissible ; but that was not so as to private books or the books of private bankers. The witness said he had no doubt he paid the check. The original debt he believed to have been the 16th of October, 18Gt The check had been paid and cancelled in the usual way by erasing the signature, and he believed the erasure had been erased and then the signature re written over the traces of the former signature. The prisoner, a poor, ignorant fellow, whom no one could suppose capable of so crafty a device, repeated his former statement that he had picked up the check and presented it . a.s he found it, and had never altered it. The learned Judge, in summing up the case to the jury, pointed out to them that there was a count; for uttering the check, knowing it to ba forged, as well as a count for forging it, and they might convict him upon either or both. There could be no doubt upon the evidence, that the check was originally drawn in 1857. The suggestion wes that the cancellation had been erased. and the signature being re written or retraced. Of this they could judge from inspec tion of the instrument—and if they believed that the pri soner had found the check and thus dealt with the date and signature so as to give the appearance of a recent check of the date of the 26th of October, 1861, he would be guilty of forgery. Or, if finding it so altered by any bady else, and knowing it to be forged he presented it, ho would be guilty of the uttering. Looking at the prisoner's appearance and his apparent want of in telligence, they might doubt whether he made the altera tions. Then came the question whether lie knew the check to be false or forged. Beyond all doubt he uttered it. And then there were the facts of his giving a false address, and falsely denying his presentation of it, and it was for the jury whether these facts showed guilty knowledge on his part. The jury found the prisoner Guilty of uttering the check with intent to defraud, and they recommended him to mercy on account of his poverty and infirmity. The learned judge, in passing sentence, said he thought that they had rightly found him guilty only of uttering the check. But, knowing Mr Setines as he did, his own story convicted him of great dishonesty in not taking the check back to him, even assuming that he had, as he said, found it. His real off,mce probably was that he had been guilty of a false pretence in presenting the check as if it were a genuine one, and obtaining goods by means of it. Under all the circumstances, the sentence would be imprisonment for nine months, and, on account of his weak state of health, without hard labour. MIDLAND CIRCUIT.—LEEDS, Dcc. 23. (Before Mr Justice Keating.) His lordship sentenced James Thompson, who was tried yesterday for stabbing his wife, to penal servitude for life; and the prisoner Ackroyd, who was found guilty of various offences under the bankruptcy laws, to one year's imprison ment. Thos. Drake was indicted for feloniously attempting to drown Elizabeth Wilson, with intent to murder her, at Halifax, on Dec. 6 last. Mr Thornbei conducted the prosecution; Mr Wheelhouse defended the prisoner. It appeared from the evidence that the prosecutrix and prisoner are only 17 years old, and that they had been liv ing together for come weeks; but the prosecutrix had left the prisoner about a month before the unhappy occurrence took place. The prosecutrix then lived in a furnished room and used to go to work every day in Halifax. On the 6th December she arrived too late at her work, and had to re turn home again. As the was returning she met the prisoner by the canal. He accompanied her;towards her home. When they had got under the canal bridge.he caught hold of her with one hand and put his other hand over her eyes and pushed her into the water. She went under the water three or four times, while the prisoner stood looking on without offering her any assistance, and then walked away. John Furness, a man who happened to be passing, bravely jumped into the water, and saved the prosecutrix at great peril to his life. The prosecutrix was then laid on the grass, and while the people on the spot were attending to her the pri soner threw himself into the water and attempted to drown himself. Mr Wheelhouse contended, on behalf of the prisoner, that he was not in his right mind at the time, and called several witnesses to prove the fact. His Lordship, in summing up, said that the witness Fur ness had conducted himself in a most gallant and humane manner, which reflected the greatest credit on him, and he regretted that he was unable to grant him a public reward. The learned judge then said that it was fcr the jury to con sider if the prisoner at the time was in a state of mind to form any intention at all, for it appeared that the prisoner at the bar, from an accident he had three or four years ago, was subject to fits, and that he never was himself for some days after, and that he had a fit the night before; but still the jury must look at his conduct at the time to arrive at a right conclusion as to his state of mind. The jury found the prisoner guilty, and told his lordship that they had made a subscription for the witness Furness to show their appreciation of his services. His Lordship said they had better give the money to the officer of the Court, as probably there might be other per sons in court who might be desirous cf adding to it. (His lordship himself added a handsome donation.) His lordship said that under the circumstances he should only sentence the prisoner to 15 years' penal servitude. George Wrighlson, Thomas Bourne, George Walker, and Isaac Askbam were indicted for night poaching. Mr Maule said that Robert Wright, the head game keeper of Mr George Fox, with five other keepers, went out to watch on the 16th Nov. last at one o'clock in the morning. At half-past one they were in Bramham-park , close by the Thatched House, Whincozer, in the township of Barwick in Elmet. They saw the prisoners standing about, and went towards them. They noticed that there were nets about fur catching game, and a bag was subse quently found with game in it. The prisoners cried out "Hiss, hies," and advanced to meet the keepers, whom they attacked. The keepers, however, got the best of the fight, and several of the poachers were wounded. The fight lasted 10 minutee, at the end of which time the keepers succeeded in apprehending the prisoners. It was contended on behalf of the prisoners that the keepers attacked them, and that they, on their part, offered no resistance whatever beyond what was absolutely neces sary to protect themselves. His lordship said that if the jury believed the witnesses there was no doubt the offence had been committed. The jury acquitted the prisoners. Thus ended the business of the Midland Circuit. OXFORD CIRCUIT.—READING, Dec. 23. CROWN COURT. (Before Mr Justics Byles.) Jesse Oakly was indicted for wounding Isaac Oakly on the throat, at Chieveley, on the 12th Dec. last, with intent to murder him, or do him grievous bodily harm. The prisoner, upon being arraigned, pleaded Guilty; but the learned judge caused the indictment to be ex plained to him and a plea of Not Guilty to be entered for him. The prisoner was out in service as a farm labourer,but on Sunday, the 11th inst., unexpectedly returned home to his father, who is a labourer, and lives in a cottage on the Hill green in Chieveley. Isaac Oakly is his younger brother and with the prisoner and a brother and a sister Charlotte made up the family. The prisoner is 21 years old, and his brother Issac 10 years old. After he came home on the Sunday the prisoner ate his meals as usual and went to chapel it the evening. He was observed by his father and sister to be whetting one of the table knives on a brick before the house, and he told them that he was doing it to cut off some dead skin which he had on his hand, and his father saw him afterwards cutting at his hand, On the Monday morning Charlotte gave Isaac his usual dinner to take with him to school, and between 8 and 9 o'clock Isaac started. Jesse was then on the green, and he asked Isaac to go along with him. Isaac refused to go, but Jesse took him by both hands and pulled him over a stile close by the cottage. The stile led into a field in which was a path and also a chalk pit. Jesse took Isaac up this path and to the chalk pit, which he asked Isaac to go in to seek a rabbit. They both went down into the pit. Jesse put Isaac to sit and lie down, and sat himself down alongside, Isaac had a handkerchief round his neck, and this handkerchief Jesse fastened round his eyes. Isaac immediately felt something sharp against his throat, and blood trickled down between his skin and his clothes. Mrs Oakly, the mother, who had been at work on this morning in a field near, and was re turning home when she met Jesse some short distance from the chalk pit, who told that Isaac was up against the chalk pit and would not go to school. She went to the chalk pit and found. Isaac with a little blood on his frock, but so little had fahen on the outside of his frock that she thought that his nose only was bleeding. He was sensible, and she took him home. and there she discovered that his throat had been cut. The wound was described as an incised wound of three inches in length, and half an inch in depth in the centre, and made an opening in the windpipe sufficiently large to ad mit the point of a little finger. Jacob Oakly, the father, came home soon afterwards, found what had been done, and went after Jesse, whom he found in a lane near, When he was asked whether ho was guilty or not, Jesse made no answer. In the chalk pit was found the handle of one of the table knives belonging to the cottage. No xiotive for the act could be assigned by the prosecution. Jesse was described as al ways very good to Isaac, and it was said there never had been any quarrel between them. He, however, had not kept his places where he had been at work, and generally left of his own mind. The policeman who took him into custody found upon him a card which had been given him at a re ligious camp meeting, and which purported to appoint him a collector for the Primitive Methodist connection, on be• half of the Peasemore chapel, in the Newbury circuit. His father, too, had once known him praying in the open air on the green, with others of the same persuasion, and stated that when a child he had- had fits. .But it appeared that on Sunday, the 11th inst., he ate as usual, and nothing strange was observed about him. His Lordship, in summing up, commented on the impos sibility of assigning any motive for the act done by the pri soner, and told the jury they must consider whether the prisoner was or was not of sound mind when he did the deed, and that he was of sound mind if he knew at the time he was doing wrong. It appeared that a he had the means of such knowledge, but, his lordship added, those who know best are subject to strange aberrations *of mind. His lord ship alluded also to the religious tendencies of the prisoner, saying, however, that no inference could be drawn from the form of religion adopted by the prisoner, for that, whatever form the Christian religion assumed, it was the best security for the virtue of mankind, THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING', DECEMBER 24, 1864. The jury returned a verdict on the ground of insanity, His Lordship said that though the evidence was very scant on the subject, he thought the jury were right. The prisoner was then remanded to custody, to be de tained during her Mejasty's pleasure. The conviction of a man for robbery with violence, who was sentenced to five years penal servitude brought the as sizes for this circuit to a close early this afternoon. The Unity Joint-Stock Bank Inquiry. The case in which Joseph Wakefield Terry, the manager) and Thomas Burch, the secretary of the Unify Joint-stock Banking Company, are charged with having knowingly and wilfully prepared and circulated a false balance-sheet of the affairs of the said bank, with intent to defraud the mem,. bers and shareholders, was yesterday resumed before the Mayor at tho Mansion-house. Mr Lewis, jun., appeared to conduct the prozecution— Mr Sleigh, instructed by Mr Watson, of Cannon-street,ap peared for the defendant Terry—Mr Metcalfe, instructed by Mr Wontner, sen., appeared for Burch —and Mr Hum phreys was again present to give any information on the part of the directors. George Lewis Phipps Eyre was sworn, and said he was a solicitor, carrying on business at 1, John-street, Bedfot d rew, a member of the firm of Eyre and Lawson. At the formation of the Unity Bank he was applied to to become a director of that institution, and he joined the board from that period, by which he had been a great loser. The de fendant Terry was first accountant to the bank, and was appointed on December 20, 1855, which was during the formation of the bank and about six months before the bank was opened. He had the highest character from Messrs. Jones Loyd and Co., in whose service he had been 17 years. Terry was appointed manager on Aug. 17, upon the retire ment of Mr Chambers. In June, 1857, he had a conversa tion with Terry in the board-room in presence of the direc tors. One of the matters in which Mr Chambers was con sidered inefficient was in reference to an account of a person named Gregory, to whom Mr Chambers had lent £l,OOO without security, and to balance the books the sum of £l,OOO was entered in the cash article book, and included in the cash balance for some time, Gregory having, in fact, left the country. Upon that coming to the directors' know ledge Terry was summoned before the board, and he was asked to explain the irregularity of that sum appearing in the cash artic!e book, which was then brought before the board. The item was pointed out to him, and he explained in the presence of the manager tnat it was an irregularity, and that gave him (Mr Eyre) great confidence in him fear his frankness. After the opening of the London and Mid dlesex Bank, Lord Torrington, who was the chairman, ex pressed confidence in Mr Terry, Mr Lewis observed that he did not know where to find Lord Torrington. Mr Humphreys--He is at Windsor Castle. Witness proceeded--Burch was appointed clerk in 1856, and was appointed as secretary in 1858, but was not formally appointed until January, 1860. Burch prepared the report 1 to the sharehold ers i n June, 1858, and w it ness pro d uce d a manuscript draft in Burch's handwriting. On Jan. 19, 1858, at a board meeting, it was resolved to adopt a sug gestion made by witness to appoint a secretary, as the manager had, previous to the date of the resolution, to per form the duties of manager, secretary, and accountant, and that the duties of the secretary would be to attend the board of directors and enter the mi nu t es, to write the half year l y reports, to write all letters of importance as dictated by the court, to take the management of the share capital, keep the transfer books, and issue warrants for dividends, and some other duties; and, in order that the directors might have easy access to all sources of information, to en able them to control the entire operations of the bank and their being acquainted with the daily progress, that the secretary should have to be provided by the manager, in order to bring before the committee in court, a statement of customers' daily balances, showing in juxtaposition what amount under discount, &c. ; a list of bills discounted the previous day or since the last court or commutes; a state ment of loans renewed or for approval, or application for loans for the consideration of directors; a general daily balance-sheet, and the cash-book or any other cash and any other book which th e secretary m i g h t requ i re f or the direc tors' inspection. Witness said those wero his orders at the time for the fullest information being given to the directors, and it was only upon the condition of that resolution being carried that he could have taken his seat again at the board. The Lord Mayor said that was a very different version of the duties of secretary to what Mr Sykes had given. Witness wrote a letter to the directors in June, 1857, drawing attention to the position of the bank. Oa that letter a committee of the shareholders was appointed to in • vestigate the affairs. He resumed his seat at the board on Nov. 24,1857. The Lord Mayor askei how many shares he had in the bank. Witness said ho had at that time 40. Unfortunately he increased them afterwards. Witness resumed, and said his attendance, and also his brother directors' was constant. They met twice a week, and bNiides that one or other of the directors was daily at the bank. One director was in the habit, periodically, of going to the West Branch. It was Burch's duty to read out to the directors the list of unclaimed articles from the cash article book. The item £1,095 being a draft of Steene's, which he found in the cash article book, and which appeared every day fur about 12 months, he never heard Burch read over that item to the directors. On an average he theought Burch did not read more than 25 items from the cash articles. In the book produced there were over 300. He (witness) had no idea that dishonoured cheques were entered in that book. Burch had never mentioned that item to the directors. A large sum was always a matter of inquiry, and since the matter of £l,OOO witness had alluded to, he had paid particular attention to the reading of that book. He undoubtedly considered that Burch read every item, and he never examined the bills after Burch had read them. He had great confidence in Burch. On the 27th June, 1862, there were dishonoured bills in that book to the amount of £16,265, included in a total of £lB,lOO, purport.. ing to be the cash in hand on that day, and he (Mr Eyre) had not the slightest knowledge that £16,000 out of £lB,OOO consisted of dishonoured bills. They appeared in the book as cash articles. Burch never told him there was that amount of dishonoured bills amongst the cash. He had no know ledge of the bank at that time, except such knowledge as he obtained from the knowledge of the defendants. The effect of the rules he had suggested, if carried cut properly, would have placed the true state of affairs before the directors. The detailed balance sheet produced, which showed the amount of past due bills, was never shown to him by either of the defendants. He saw the manuscript balance sheet corresponding with the one printed and circulated and published. The two manuscript balance sheets were in the handwriting of Burch. The balance sheet was pub , blished in September, 1862, It would be the duty of Burch to send the balance sheet to be printed. and also to send it to the shareholders. Just-before the publishing of that balance-sheet he (Mr Eyre) purchased twenty shares. They belonged to the executors of a de ceased director, and he purchased them for £2O lOs per share; but of the £2O lOs he received back £l9 per share, which he transferred to the capital of the London and Mid dlesex Bank, and which he had also lost, except £3 per share, which he had from the liquidators of the Unity Bank. With regard to the £340 which he transferred to the Lon don and Middlesex, upon the faith of the balance-sheet, he had not received a farthing. About June, 1862, he had a conversation with defendants, and they led him to believe that, with the £lO,OOO they had in the Middlesex, the shares would yield £3O each. He believed that under new direction and management, and under a new name, without the odium which was attached to the Unity, it would be a good specu• lation. By the Lord Mayor—At that time he had not ascertained the amount of dishonoured bills. He did not know until a twelvemonth after wards the extent of dishonoured bills, and not until Mr Howell's investigation the full extent of the losses. There were directions given to the defendants by Mr Alderman Mechi to prepare a truthful and bona fide balance-sheet. He did not know the item £207,000 included bills and cheques that had been dishonoured years before. He believed it represented the bona fide assets of the bank. The Lord Mayor—The actual value P Witness—The actual value according to the manager's calculation. In continuation, witness said it was not by his direction forged bills were included. A forged bill of a customer named Madums for £1,841 was included in the good assets. That bill appeared by the minutes to have been ordered to be de bited to the profit and loss account as irrecoverably lost. Mr Alderman Mechi held about a fifth of the capital of the bank in shares, and was very constant in his attendance at the bank,and in consequence of that witness was not so constant. On Nov. 25, 1863, at a board meeting, resolutions were passed—" That the thanks of the board collectively and individually should be presented to the manager, secretary, district manager and staff, for their untiring zeal, ability, .• and services rendered to the directors and shareholders on transferring the business of the bank to the London and Middlesex, and on winding up its affairs ; and that £350 be awarded and forthwith paid to the -manager, secretory, and clerks for their services during the amalgamation with the London and Middlsex (Limited), and for their past and continuing services in winding up the affairs of the bank ; and also that a further sum of £250 be awarded and paid there when such services were completed on the conclusion of the winding up," Mr Terry's salary was, on his first appointment, £750 a year, which was after. wards increased to £l,OOO. At the time that resolution was I passed, he had no idea of what had since come to his know ledge in respect to the item of £207,000. In Dec„ 1862, a resolution was passed directing Burch to prepare a list of defaulters to the Unity Bank. That list was presented to the board. The debt of Sterne for £2,100 was not in that list ; not were Lowenthal's for £4,635, Bunyard's for £5,600, G. 11. Wood's for £1,400, and John Harris's for £1,360. On Jan, 20, 1863, a resolution was passed that the secre tary should prepare a statement, showing the financial position of the bank, and present it at the next meeting. It appeared by the minutes that one was presented. In March, 1863, there was a resolution that an alphabetical list of debtors should be prepared. The book produced, which was principally in Burch's writing, but which had some of Terry's figures in it, was the book produced at the meeting. He had no recollection of the debts of Sterne and the others he had alluded to, being included in that book, and which alone amounted to nearly £17,000. He had not the slightest idea that those amounts were owing to the bank. On the morning of the eoth Feb., 1864, he was in the board-room of the London and Middlesex Bank. Ile saw Mr Alder. man Mechi there, and he had a piece of paper in his hand with a list of debtors, and ho (witness) noticed the names of Sterne and Lowenthall, and asked Burch, who was pre sent, how it was they had not been mentioned before, as he did not remember seeing them before. Burch said ho would prefer that Mr Terry should answer the question, and he left the room, after which Terry entered, and he asked him how it was that Sterne and Lowenthall were debtors to the bank, of which the directors knew nothing. Terry said they were debtors, and admitted it had been concealed, but said ho had done so with an object in doing it. He (Terry) said by introducing Lowen thal' to the London = and Middlesex he should be able to reduce the debt to the Unity. lie (witness) was a director of the London and Middleaex, and he knew Lowenthal' wao having money from that bank—but he had not at that time been made aware of the fact that he owed money to the Unity, or he should not have given his sanction to his hav ing money from the London and Middlesex—Lowenthall's debt to the London and Midillesex,:He had no knowledge of the release given to Bunyard in respect to his £5,600, and Terry would have no authority to release that debt without the consent of the board. He had no release of the assign ment, and release for £lO,OOO of reties. Those accounts were constantly discussed by the board. Burch was sure to have been present. He had spoken to Burch about Lowens thall, when that party's bills were before the board, andle said it was a good account, and the acceptances were gen uine, although the amounts were so small. He had no idea that the whole of Lowenthall's acceptances were given up, and the worthless paper of Ironsides taken in exchange. The Lord Mayor—To have something to represent the amount ? Mr Lewis—Just so. Witness continued—He did not know that Ironsides' bills had been struck out to avoid presentation. At the time Lowenthal' was a customer at the London and Middlesex, neither of i the defendants said anything in respect to Lowen thall's debt to the Unity. Burch was asked, in reference to Mr Lowenthall's bills, what sort of customer he was, and he said that the bills were paid in cash. Lowenthall's debt to the London and Middlesex was originally £7OOO, of which £4,000 was entirely lost, When the balance was pdblished, in June, 1862, showing the bank to be solvent and capable of paying a dividend, he had not the slightest suspicion that it was otherwise, or that it was not a correct statement of their affairs. He (witness) had no hand in preparing that balance-sheet; it was left to the two defendants, Cross• examined by Mr Sleigh—He believed, according to the terms of the report, there was a surplus of £3,215 78, after paying expenses. Mr Sleigh drew witness's attention to his letter of June, 1857, in which he stated in reference to the affairs of the bank that the losses during the then past half-year had been £9,000, and that out of the £150,003 capital only £15,000 was available for banking purposes, the rest having been lost ; and asked whether he believed that between that and September, 1862, the bank had so far regained its losses as to have a surplus of £3,000. Witness explained that he did not say the security was lost, but that it was unavailable, Mr. Chambers, the former manager, having at that time a large sum out in loans, and said a call of £lO had been made. Mr Sleigh repeated his question, and witness said he believed the statement set forth by the balance-sheet, that there was £3,000 available, and did not think at the time the defendants would have made such a statement if it were untrue. The case was then again adjourned, the defendants being admitted to bail as before in a total sum of £B,OOO. Foreign Mail Packet List. MAILS DUE. Australia and Mauritius, via Southampton.... Jan. 18. ,-- via Marseilles' Jan. 12, Brazil and Cape Verds, by British packet .. Jan. 5. Cape of Good Hope, Ascension, and St. Helena.. Dec. 29. China, Penang, and Singapore, via Southampton. Jan. 2. via Marseilles ...Dec. 27, Falkland Islands Gibraltar, via Southamptt n Deo. 27, India (Calcutta), and Ceylon, via Southampton Jan. 2. via Marseilles, ...Dec, 27. fndia (Bombay), via Southampton via Marseilles Dec. 21 Portugal.... Malta, Egypt, and Aden, via Southampton Dec. 27. via Marseilles Dec, 21 Newfoundland Oporto and Vigo U. S. and British N. Amorica, by Brit. packet.... Dec 29, by U.S. packet.... by Canadian packet. Dec. 30 W.C. of Africa, Madeira, and Teneriffe Tan 10. West Indies and Pacific . .. .Dec.. 29. 13 ahatnas (via New York) Jan. 12. Bermuda (ditto) Cuba and Mexico Dec. 29. An old actor, Lonis,Kramer, has just died at Geneva in a singular way ; he was playing King Lear, and in his ex citement swallowed a portion of his artificial beard, which stuck in the windpipe and choked him. [A DT ERTis EmENT.] —Holloway's Ointment.--Sound ness Renewed.--Any indolent ulcer or chronic sore should immediately have this excellent unguent applied to it in the manner pointed out in its accompanying directions. For thoroughly cleansing a diseased or broken skin, and for rousing its poisoned vessels or depressed nerves to healthy action, nothing can surpass Holloway's well-known oint ment. It, strikingly shows its power when applied to the "old man's ulcer;" which settles in the leg, and often be comes most intractable under the ordinary treatment, though no case has yet withstood this cooling and healing salve. The troublesome swellings preparatory to most ulcerations of the legs are likewise reduced by the diligent application of Holloway's unguent, by giving strength to SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS. TIMES,—We took occaeion to remark some time ago that it the Americans could but have foreseen the magnitude and duration of their Civil War it would never have been undertaken, and that the South would have been left to follow its own policy of secession and independence. Our words have cow been echoed by one of the Federal Ministers i❑ his official report. Mr. Fessenden, whose duties as Secretary of the Treasury bring him necessarily into contact with the stern realities of the struggle, candidly confesses his doubts whether the people would have ever entered upon this contest if they could have anticipated its cost. They bad taken no measure of the work before them. Believing it to be a matter of " ninety days," and a short volunteer service, they plunged into the war, and than, at each'successive check,redoubled their exerte tions and their outlay, always with the delusive idea that this one effort was alone required to bring the struggle to a close. We believe that in these circumstances lies the true explanation of that financial position which Mr. Fessenden has so frankly described. The Federals raised money as they raised men, by abrupt calls on unlimited scale. They had no machinery ready organized either for financial or military purposes, and they extempea rized a Budget the same as they extemporized an army. The inevitable results of such a policy have long been manifest in the enormous and incessant demands for men and a prodigality of expenditure absolutely without parallel in the history of na tional finance. The Americans began their war under conditions apparently favourable Zo the exer tion of national strength. They were, as a people, prosperous, beyond measure, untouched by taxation and - with a public credit unimpaired by any public debt. But if they were ignorant of taxation they might be supposed to be impatient of it also, and their rulers, under the governing delusion that a single campaign would " break the neck of the rebellion," decided, not unnaturally, on leaving them untaxed still. If, indeed, we put our selves in the position of Federal statesmen four years ago, we shall readily admit that what Mr. Chase then did was the most reason able thing that he could do. It might have been dangerous and would certainly have been tedious to raise by taxation the funds immediately required. There was no machinery available, there was no ex perience to furnish information or guidance, and nobody could tell how the sudden demands of the Treasury could be bese'or most safely satisfied through the annual revenue, On the other hand, a loan would remove every difficulty. It would bring in the money at once, it would leave the people undisturbed, and in the absence of any pre-Existing debt the °bilges time would be too trifling to be considered. So Mr Chase, though he only calculated on wanting about £60,000,000 for the first year's service, quietly pro posed to borrow more than £50,000,000 of the sum, and if the war bad been finished at Buil Run, he would have been justified in Lis policy. It was never worth while for the sake of a sum which would be unappreciable as a national debt to create an una popular and perhaps unproductive system of no tional taxation. But the very foundation of this policy, unhappily, was hollow throughout. The war was not to be so ended. It was a contest of giants conducted on a scale of matchless magnitude, and portending a duration incalculable still. Mr Chase, therefore, found himself in unexpected diffi culties. He had made exactly the opposite mistake to that made by our own Chancellor of the Exche quer in the Crimean war. Mr Gladstone thought he could do without loans—Mr Chase thought he could do without taxes—but the American war has been se immense in its scope and so obstinately pro tracted, that the error of the Federal statesman Lad produced astounding consequences. There was no% thing far it but to go on, to establish and improve a system of taxation as fast as might b 2, and in the meantime to borrow what could not be otherwise raised. This Mr Chase did. He saw as clearly as we see that such a system of borrowing was ruinous, and that a revenue from taxation should be procured at the earliest moment possible; but this, as Mr Fessenden truly says, was a work of time, and the State could not wait for the money. New loans, therefore, were necessarily contracted one after another, and so gigantic were the charges of the war, that even the products of taxation as they gra dually increased still left the deficits to be made up by loans as formidable as ever. In these facts we obtain a clue to the otherwise bewildering history of Federal finance. The financiers of the North have done their beet, and that best hes been better than is commonly supposed. But they were crippled first by the want of adequate organisation and ex perience in the Revenue Department, and then by the inordinate magnitude of the demands accruing year after year. It must not be forgotten in criti cising a Federal budget that nothing has ever hitherto been seen approaching to the scale of Fede ral expenditure. That expenditure is certainly half a-million sterling a day, and it is not improbable that if all liabilities could be brought to account the outgoings of the year would reach two hundred millions. Oar greatest expenditure scarcely reached above half this sum. In the year 1814 it really did amount to £111,000,000, an aggregate still regarded as marvellous, but in 1856 it was only £82,000,000. This uumanageable demand is what defeats the skill of Federal financiers. Otherwise, as far as taxation goes, they have gradually formed a scheme of re venue which places a fair share of weight on the shoulders of the present generation. The taxes now to be levied from the people of the Federal States will sustain a comparison with these levied from our selves. Last year Mr Chase collected upwards of £50,000,000, or as much as we raised 20 years ago. For the current year Mr Fessenden calculates on getting about £54,000,000, although certain lucky windfalls which helped Mr Chase are no longer to be anticipated. For the year next ensuing the revenue, exclusive of loans, is estimated to produce no less than £80,000,000, so that a fair proportion between loans and taxation has been established at last. 'fire report before us, though elaborately instruc tive in other particulars, does not descend to those details which we look for in the statements of our own Ministers ; in fact, the condensation of matter is carried in some points to obscurity. Dismissing the receipts from public lands and miscellaneous sources, we find Mr Fessenden's estimate of revenue reduced to two beads; and these our financial Reformers will be distressed to hear are Customs and Excise. The "internal revenue," however, of which Mr Fessenden speaks comprehends, like our own " inland revenue," not only Excise duties, bur direct taxes ; and upon the latter subject we should like to have more information than the Report supplies. We know full well that hitherto duties corresponding to our Excise duties have been maintained at a height far exceeding that of direct taxation, but we have not got the exact figures. At present, though Mr Fessenden hopes to extend the Income-tax, it is clearly upon Excise or its equiva lents that he mainly relies. The Customs Duties have already been strained bey and their strength, for they are falling off in amount, and have created a smuggling trade in the place of regular commerce. It seems that £15,000,000 is about the maximum of their produce, so that Mr Fessenden must raise a good £60,000,000 from " internal revenue." And this is what, for the year 1865.66, he hopes to do, but how that £60,000,000 is to be made up he does not tell us. 'We can only see that every branch of trade and every process of commerce are apparently to be taxed, and that the interference with business will be something beyond the conception of people in this country. Mr Fessenden himself believes that certain of his taxes would "probably fail of collection to some extent," but that by the applica tion of "stringent rules, requiring frequent perio dical returns, verified by oath, coupled with the power to compel an exhibit of books of account," they might be made satisfactorily productive. Such are the prospects before the Federal Secretary, and their general character may be gathered from the fact that although he hopes to raise in 1865 about eight times as much by taxation as Mr Chase raised in 1861, he will still have to raise twice as much by borrowing. In the face of such terrible necessities we must own that we are not surprised to find Mr Fessenden himself resorting to the very same delu sion which had misled his predecessor, and " confi dently hoping," for his own consolation, that " the great struggle is near its termination," and that his prospective estimates may have been superfluously framed. POST.—Wo are entering upon a season which, whilst inculcating increased reverence for the duties of our faith, and increased observance of social amenities, also prover bially sanctions increased indulgence in joyousness, merry making, and amusement. ln pursuit of the latter our theatres will naturally coma in fur a largo share of public patronage. Christmas is the golden ago of managers, as it is of the little boys and girls home for the holidays, and of the children of maturer growth who are still blessed with sufficient freshness of heart to remain unsated of theatrical illusions. The Christmas of 1864-6 seems destined to be no less fertile in opportunities for the tacilo indulgence of such predilections than its predecessors. Indeed, it may be expected, if we can trust open announcement and confi dentist rumours, that its attractions in that line will exceed anything yet offered. The most ingenious word-twisters of the day will read satirical lessens to the intelfigent, and amaze the less keen-witted by that clever nonsense, con veyed in the most atrocious of puns, which seems to be the Specialilie of the age. Juvenile erudition will realise splendid illustrations of its researches into the annals of the "Arabian Nights," " Madame d'Aulnois," and "Fairy Tales." Impossible loveliness in scenery will suggest the prospect of future Royal Academicians, and all the resources of machinery, amounting to engineering, and of scientific chemistry will be called in to produce "Startling effects." Even unwonted establishments will contend in the race, and her Majesty's, defying the ghosts of - Cstalini and Pasta, will produce a pantomime sie . naliscei ,_____a not to the shades of John Kemble and Edmund Kean-- will lead the town by the nose by means of one -legged dancers. Old and young will doubtless find something to dazzle, and, what is more, to amuse them; and in the trust that crowded houses and approving smiles will repay the labour, mental as well as physical, and the liberal outlay usually lavished upon such productions, we ven ture to offer a few words of kindly remonstrance to a very important element of such a result—the audience. We cannot, perhaps, better introduce our pro' test than by repeating a few lines which appeared in our impression of yesterday, relative to the performance of a new play at the St. James's Theatre on Thursday n ight. They ran thus—" We feel ourselves compelled to add that the success of this piece w as ren d ere d ver y cr itical, not on account of any demerits p:roeptibl e i n it, but owing to the unseemly conduct of certain individu a ls in a private beet close upon the st age , Th ese gent l emen amuse d th e mselves by making grimac es a t, s p ea ki ng t o , an d l ou dl y interrupt ing the actors on the stage—so loudly that at first the audience imagined the words proceeded legitimately from some one of the characters about to enter. The annoyanco at last arrived at such a height, and so palpably imperilled the success of the play, that Mr Charles Mathews was com pelled to make a personal remonstrance on the subject to the individuals from whom the interruption proceeded. The audience at once took up the cause, and both unanimously and vociferously demanded that the offenders should be turned out. This they firmly insisted upon, until it was at length accomplished, and the play proceeded satisfactorily to its termination. When it is remembered what disadvan tages usually attend a first representation,' such behaviour —which includes not only an injury to the establishment but also an insult to the audience—cannot be too strongly reprobated." This is but a mild description of the persistent rudeness which actually took place, and singularly enough, an occurrence of a similar interruption, though not of so personal a nature, had taken place somewhat earlier in the piece, but had been put down by a significant demonstration on the part of the public. These two instances of such bee haviour in one evening, reprehensible at any time, were on that night especially ill-timed. Not only was it the first night of a new piece, when the corps dranzatique is ob viously entitled to increased indulgence, and when every allowance is usually accorded for that want of smoothness in the action of a play which no number of " rehearsals" will sufficiently ensure, but the entertainments on that occasion were for the benefit of two well-deserved favourites of the public, Mr and Mrs Charles Mathews—the ono appealing to our sympathies not only by her sex, but as an accomplished artiste; the other, equally on the natural score cf his hereditary claims as well as in his own title, fairly established, to that succes sion. SJ unexpected a reception was quite sufficient to daunt the stoutest theatrical nerves, and as it so happened that the chief weight of the piece fell precisely upon those exposed to this ordeal, not only were the enjoyment of the audience and the efforts of the performers very critically impaired, but the hopes of an author and the legitimate expectations of a manager lay at the mercy of a few reckless or thoughtless individuals. Now, we are far from asserting that such un seemly occurrences as these are common in our theatres, though they aro in reality far more frequent than any bait habitual playgoers are aware of. But whilst we admit, with a certain pride, that upon such occasions the general public rises en masse—no less for its own convenience than in honest sympathy with those outraged—to reprobate the offence, and expel the offenders, we submit that th. s very reprobation en* titles and encourages us to point out the prevalence of a similar shortcoming, in a milder form, which equally needs amendment. Thi thoughtless are becoming almost as an noying as the reckless. It is now a matter of daily, or r ather nightly, experience to find in temost any theatre one or mote groups of persons who appear to take a livelier interest in their own conversation than in the performance before them. They appear to be either ignorant or careless that their small talk, though carried on in a private box and in a tone o° louder than that usual with them in their own houses, is sufficiently distracting to reader inaudible, or rather inex plicable, the dialogue on the stage. It is to be presumed they are unconscious that their enjoyment of their own and their friends' sweet voices is utterly destructive of the every ing's pleasure to the rest of the audience. Let us assure them of that fact. The most devoted lover of the drama Is paralysed by that apparent trifle. The pathos even 0 1. a Rachel must needs pale when accompanied by a running commentary on last night's debate, and there could happen no more cruel revulsion of feeling than when excited eighteen, awaiting with chilled heart and bated breath the stealthy appearance of the "Hidden Hand," hears Charley Foppleton distinctly ask Lady Louis, " Shall you go to the Fitzflummery's to-morrow ?" Absorption is in deed indispensable to the "necessary questi o n o f th e play and as to nine-tenths of every audience the attendance at one is not a matter of habit, while it is one of expense, thos e who can occupy private boxes at their option will act the more considerately in conceding to the m th a t privilege; for we regret to say that it is in the private boxes where such forgetfulness is chit fly prevalent. It has even descended from the gallery, its former home, and now the gods, wh° are so knowing as to detect the most recondite allusions of the moat classical burlesques, are also wise enough to listen to that which they have paid for hearing. It is true that "Boxing Night" is sometimes, but not always, an eXCFP' lion; and perhaps on Monday next the performances pre ceding the pantomimes may pass in dumb show amidst the confusion of Babel. But, in general, the gallery is attentive and discriminating, evidently intent upon having its six' penny worth for its sixpence. We wonder this sensible Le' provement has never struck their superiors, in whom the payment fur what is decidedly the least comfortable of apartments, and, moreover, liable to interruption from th e stage, is amazing. We presume the notion th tt to appe ar at a theatre and seem indifferent to the performance is eyrer tomatic of a" swell," has quite exploded. The greenest of "gents" must have given up that long ago. For the real and genuine "swells" either come to be amused, or, having a thousand other agreeable haunts, stay away, We thin k quite well enough even of the most thoughtless of our audi ences to feel assured that when they once reflect that their want of consideration needlessly wounds the dignity of very laborious profession, needlessly destroys the clei°Y ment of their inoffensive fellow-citizens, and grievously le° . perils the natural expectations of those who risk much 111 the management of our theatres, we shall hear of few more such instances. But if any one ambitious of being " gra nd e imagines he will lose the chance by adhering to such: proposition, let him abjure the notion. Tittlebat TiL. mouse is never less likely to be mistaken for the P ako of St James's, and never so certain of being set clo Wil , for a "gent," as when, by his utter contempt for the Per forrnance, he obviously manifests that his visit to t he u e theatre is merely owing o his possessing no more " opportunity of spending his evening. COUNTRY MAREETS. -----. _..r , . ~~ -- -, LIVERPOOL—FRIDAY. A numerous attendance of millers and dealers at tbll i , morning's market, and wheat met a good conbumptivo cptiry, at an advance of 2d per cental upon this day W eeo ,. Flour held for 33 to 6d per sack and barrel more nioS3. Oats and oatmeal dull, and prices remain the same• ld dian corn is dearer. Beans, barley, and peas all pc firm, WAKEFIELD—FRIDAY. fulil Fine dry wheat met a fair consumptive demand at - - „s last week's prices. In barley no change. Beans and Ps zather firm. Averages for the week : `Wheat 3354 qrs,, at 4ls 61d Oats 8ar1ey......... 684 Peas Be 3s . ss 7d nn s 65 —FRIDAYto . White wheat, ~40s to . STAMFOR 42s D ; red, 35s 38s per 3 v a e qr. Barley, malting, 31s to 35s ; grinding, 27s to 3 0 s P n to vi il er Oats, 18s to 21s per 24 stone. Beans, old, 38s to_4 4 " qr. ; new, 36s to ns. LINCOLN. White wheat new, 40s to 44s Red do. 36s to 38s Old white 42s to 47s Red do. 39s to 43s Barley, malting 33s to 34s 1 r -FRIDAY. Barley) grinding. 28i to 3 64 Oats; old, 24s to 205 New do '''''' '''''' 22s to 24 0 Beans.. ''''''''''''' '' 40s to 43 0 I Beans, new '''''''' 36s to 3° BRISTOL SUGAR—FRIDAY- hn During the last week there has been a stear'Y w -e ,: o tev doing in raw and refined sugar, and prices must be (1- 00 fully Gd dearer. Rum sells steadily at full pr i c es.. tos s produce markets will be closed to-day for the (.310 holidays, and reopened Jan. 3. Births. I, 00 3 GRANT.—On the 22d inst., at Gosport, the wife of G. Grant, Esq., of a son, fife OGLEOn the 23d in)3t., at Norbury, Beulah , the John Ogle, Esq , of a daughter. ,h OTTER.—On the 23d inst., at 47, Montagu•squarel e of Charles Otter, Esq., of a daughter. Marriages. PA.YNE—WARREN.—On the 22d inst. a t at TutlA r Y' 6 0 ' fordshire, Alexander Richard Payne, of Milve ter rtoff9 i th e merset, solicitor, to Francis Anna, third daugh ° late Samuel Warren, Esq., et the same place. „ch, SMITH-.-BAILY. — On the 22d inst. , at TrinitY C lo Westbourne-terracc, Richard.ilorion S na ith,BAl Joh° of Lincoln's-inn, to Martha, the eldest daug hter v Baily, Esq., Q.C. AN.—On the. 19th ..npste.,aatthsG.uornsey, ALE o s 130 Clifton Alban, agl oS. BRYANS —On the 20th inst., Chester, IV Bard Brytins) Ed(l., aged 92. at .t, CALL 'llia° • On the 22d inst at Old Bond street, Sir NNI 'II Berl ,- Call, Bart " f Whiteford House, Cornwa f ailed 49. - ~ o OGLE.—On o'l°' the 21st inst,, at Upper Norwood, Rlehd. 0 Major 2 E , q., of the Inner Temple. S afro, Ims•—On the 21st hist, at CadOßtoll, Glamorgan' the Rev. Thomas Sims, M.A., aged bO. el TUDOR—On the 21st inst,, a t Snaresbro ok, Samu udor/ .E.,q,, of Gidea Hall, R o mford, Essix , aged 66. ,„. TyLDErr.--On the 2uth inst., at Brighton, E. 111, Tylae Commander R.N. Sirbi t, WHITE..—On the 22d inst., at Brighton, Edward „d Lag., of 12, Great Marlborough-street, London, ag. . __...... ___ ___---------7.0., L on don: Prinzed and Frb.lisheci by sVILLIA 31 it ND . l .: , ~ ot Na. 112, St r and, Printer, at am NSU vine C' ' of ill ' Vill t Y ..... n he' Precinct, of. the Sav , y• ,n ..e -• .., it 4..